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Sunday, March 21, 2010

20 on the 20th. Cheers to Spring!

A couple of weeks ago, my old boss from college sent me a message on facebook asking if I wanted to do a run with her. Um...ya!! We tried to coordinate a long run, and tentatively made a date for my 20 on the 20th (first day of spring, whoo!). She had 10 on the schedule, so she was going to run the last 10 with me. Earlier this week she sent me an email asking what route I was thinking about taking since our bike trail is flooded big time. I told her I was at a loss and she sent me a route. What an angel. When I got the email with a google map image I freaked out. The route seemed soooo stinkin' long. And then I clicked on the image to get a closer look of the streets etc. and realized that half of the map was cut off in the email. It was twice as long as I thought it was. Holy crapoli.After putting the route into runstoppable I realized it was extremely hilly. Like oh my god I might die hilly. But I figured it was still better than running "offroad" on the areas of the trail that were completely flooded out. We made tentative plans to meet up Saturday morning.

Friday night I received a text from her that her littlest was in the hospital and that she was going to have to bail on our run (1 of 3 acceptably run bail out reasons, btw). I was bummed and nervous. After noticing that the route went right in front of Taylor's apartment (remember him? ha) I had previously jokingly asked him to work my "unofficial water station for Jerbear's 20 miler), to which he agreed. Which led to me jokingly (ok, completely seriously, and maybe even borderline begging) that he run a couple miles of it with me (apparently he's taken up running since we split sweet life :p). He said a big hell no, but that he would be willing to bike with me. Uh, yes please! I also shot out a text to my office husband as the route was also going by his house (I told you this route was literally all over town) to see if he wanted to jump in for a couple of the mid-miles, but his parents were in town so he declined. LAME. Jk.

When I woke up Saturday morning it was cold. Yes, I live in a cold state, I should get over it, I know. I noticed that there were 20 mph wind gusts and based on the hourly report, the wind was supposed to be changing directions every hour, and based on my departure time, I would literally be running 20 miles into the wind. WTF? Instead I decided to hold off til the afternoon when the temp had warmed up slightly (30) and the winds were 10 instead of 15. It's the little things, right? Before I headed out the door, I jotted down the route on my favorite paper: I <3 Jim. Truth.I took off and couldn't believe how hilly it was. I mean, I looked at the elevation and all, but wasn't quite expecting this. The great thing is that the hills and completely new route provided a huge distraction to running. Crazy. I was slightly worried, however, because we did a lot of hill running in high school for track, and we were always taught to drive drive drive up hills to increase our explosiveness as sprinters. Well that's ingrained in my head, but I knew it wasn't wise to power up hills, knowing I still have 15-18 miles to run. The first 5 miles literally flew by. I couldn't believe how fast my Garmin was throwing out beeps.1. 8:57
2. 9:33
3. 9:26
4. 9:30
5. 9:25 Right around the 5 mile point I started my jaunt into the wind. Um...I hate wind. Again, I was always taught to lean forward and to drive my legs when running into the wind, but again, I didn't want to use up all my energy now. Based on my times for these first few miles, I was convinced I was going to crash and burn BIG TIME the last miles. Mile 7 was literally all uphill and into the wind. I basically wanted to quit life and just curl up on the side of the road and die. I half expected this mile to be 15 minutes. I was pretty shocked when it wasn't. After Mile 7 it was pretty much up and down hill until Mile 10 which was pretty flat. Mile 9 was by my old duplex, the first place I lived "on my own" after college. It was really fun running by there because it was on roads that I used to run back in my "beginning runner" days. It's also the area of town that I would loooove to buy a house in (if I was richy rich). It's a super historical area so all of the houses are old and gorgeous.6. 9:24
7. 9:41 into the wind uphill
8. 9:12 downhill wheeeee
9. 9:32
10. 9:19 Once I hit 10, I was pretty happy, because I knew I only had to run a few more miles by myself and then I would have company. I had it broken down in my brain that I was running a HM and then pacing Tay on the bike at ~9:30 mm. See, I really enjoy tricking my brain. It works. Fo sho. The next couple of miles were through my old stomping grounds: by my college campus. I passed many houses that we use to partay it up at. Made me miss college and my BFFFs big time. Shout out to my AC loves. Ha. Mile 12 was spent climbing one of the hills that I used for WWW training (so yeah, it's pretty large and in charge), and Mile 13 was spent flying down the other side of it. All of these hills were really showing the back of my knees what was UP. The tendon (?) on the inside of my left knee was really starting to hurt.11. 9:15
12. 9:34
13. 9:05At Mile 13 I picked up the ex-factor for our "Break-up-iversary Celebration." I realized the night before that we had been splitsville for 6 months to the date, and had to chuckle up my made up anniversary to celebrate it. Mile 14 was a B because there were so many stop lights to combat, I must've stopped and started 4 or 5 times. Not fun. During the next couple of miles we got stopped quite a few times by stop lights, sidewalks ending, etc. Hatred. As each mile ticked off, I would cheer with the amount we had left, and Taylor couldn't understand it. "You've ran 16 miles, you can't be that excited by one more." Ha, when I've run that far, I only allow myself to countdown on the last 5 or so. Because I always know I can run a 5k no matter how far I've gone; again it's totally a mental thing. Whatevs. Around Mile 16 we ran near one of Tay's HS gfs house's, I quickly crossed the street. Jk. But it did work that way on the route, so it definitely looked like that was the intention. :pWhen my watch ticked to mile 16, I told Tay that if I had to, I could run another 10 miles (not 10.2, it's always that tricky .1 or .2 that kills ya...hah random inside joke...). It was such a good feeling to realize that I will probably not drop dead on the marathon course. Yes, I won't be coming in first, but I will complete the darn thing, and guaranteed I'll be rockin' a smile during Lambeau field. :)

The backs of my knees were really hurting during miles 16 and 17. At one point I think I called the pain an 8 1/2. Oops. I hoped knew that the pain was just because my legs weren't used to the hills (haha, I just typed kills there, that's probably more fitting!) and not-injury related. Tay offered to throw me on his handle bars and bike me home, which I seriously considered but then realized that ride might be almost as uncomfortable as running another 3-4 miles. :p4. 9:34
15. 9:35
16. 9:48
17. 9:48After my pace dropped off in 16 and 17, I stopped talking so much and concentrated on running. My pacer filled in the gaps, and told stories that didn't require my response/feedback. For 19 I cranked up my tunes on my iPod, which ended up being a mini stereo system with my headphones hooked in my jacket collar and that provided some extra beats to get my legs going. Of course 19 and 20 were back on the super hilly road, so I just ran because I was ready to be dooooooone. Interestingly, the back of my knees didn't hurt at all during the last 2 miles when I picked up the pace. The final mile, I told Tay to eff off (jk), that I was going to put in my iPod and just go. I cranked up RiRi's Rude Boy and it was on. Felt good to end my 20 on a fast note.18. 9:29
19. 9:06
20: 8:19

I finished the 20 in 3:07:40 for a pace of 9:23. Faster than the 9:30-9:45 I should've ran, but my legs felt a lot better than they did on 18. I run with such poor form when I get in the 9:45 range that it's really difficult for me. As soon as I was done the back of my knees were killing me, and I still had to hobble about a 1/4 of a mile home, downhill, just what my legs want. Ouch! I finally just had to sit down and get some stretching in, which helped a lot.When I got home, I was surprised at how good I felt. I had expected my stomach to completely revolt on me. Eventually I hopped in the shower, and texted a friend to meet me for dinner as I was Starvin' Marvin. As soon as I hit send I was hit with a huge wave of nausea and had my head in the toilet. Way to not disappoint body! I ended up laying on the couch letting the ol' tummy settle, grabbing some sweats, and getting some Panera to go. Food has never tasted so good. Mmm.Now it's waaaaay too early on a Sunday morning, and I woke up at 6am because no sleeping position is comfortable because my knees hurt. :( When my stomach started squawking as well, I finally got up and listened to it. Now I just finished up some leftover homemade margherita pizza with some frozen veggies on my legs and ankles. I'll be taking some ibuprofen shortly and making it back to beddy by (I hope!).P.S. On Taylor's bike ride home, he called me to say that while crossing the street on his bike, he witnessed another kid on a bike get hit by a car going 30 mph. The kid flew up on the windshield and was bleeding on his legs, but was ok. The kid wasn't wearing his helmet, and honestly, he's pretty lucky to be alive after that. Just a reminder to be safe when you're out there running/biking, and even driving. Too many drivers are not paying attention to us, so we need to be extra cautious when we're running/biking around out there. (Yes, ignore the fact that Taylor called me while biking home after this happened. Not the epitome of safety, I realize.)

awesome work, especially speeding up on the last 2 miles! i had that same weird feeling the first time i rocked a huge distance (see my NYC marathon 08 report for details if interested). we had the NYC Half this weekend and the weather was amazing. many runners had an amazing day! congrats!